Charles F. Willard
Charles F. Willard | |
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.jpg) Willard in 1910 | |
| Born | Charles Foster Willard October 13, 1883 |
| Died | February 1, 1977 (aged 93) Glendale, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | Aviator, engineer, explorer |
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Charles Foster Willard (October 13, 1883 – February 1, 1977) was an American aviator and engineer, who became known as the first barnstormer with his trick flights. Willard was the first person taught to fly by Glenn Curtiss in 1909 and was the 10th person to receive an official pilot's licence. Willard made a number of aviation 'firsts'.
In 1910, Willard made the first ever flight over downtown Los Angeles. He was the first person to fly three passengers in the United States. Willard has the unfortunate record of being the first person to have his airplane shot out of the sky by a bullet—that of an annoyed farmer who hit his propeller with a squirrel gun.[2][3][4][5]
At the Harvard-Boston Aero Meet of 1910 Charles Willard took Miss Eleanor Ladd of Boston on a flight. She worked for a Boston newspaper, and was reportedly the first newspaper woman in America to fly in an airplane.
During the aviation meet, Willard also took along Army Lieutenant Jacob E. Finkel, a sharpshooter, up in his airplane. As Willard circled the airfield, Finkel fired a rifle at targets on the ground, hitting them often. The "experiment" was considered "highly satisfactory".[6]
With aviation pioneer Stanley Yale Beach, Willard built the Beach-Willard Monoplane, which had a rectangular frame in the front tapering to a triangular frame in the rear. At the time, Beach had French, English, and American patents related to the connection of wings to a triangular body.[7][8]
Willard's father, William A. Willard, was killed on July 1, 1912 after falling from Harriet Quimby's Blériot monoplane when it pitched forward suddenly.[9][10] Unable to stabilize the aircraft, Quimby was ejected shortly afterwards.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Buckner, Harold E. (1969). "The Flying Pioneers: Charles F. Willard". American Aviation Historical Society Journal: 125. OCLC 1479442.
Willard was born at Melrose, Massachusetts, October 13, 1883, attended grade school at Hull, Massachusetts...
- ↑ "3 Passengers in Aeroplane; Charles F. Willard Establishes Record For America". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. August 15, 1910. p. 1.
New York. Aug. 14 —Charles F. Willard in a Curtiss aeroplane, flew with three passengers and himself for 500 yards at Mineola, L. I. this evening. This is the first three passenger flight recorded in America. With his brother, W. H. Willard, R. F. Patterson and Archibald Albin aboard he ascended prettily and skimmed the distance at a height of 20 feet.
- ↑ "Charles F. Willard, Who is Trying to Perfect the Monoplane; Bullet Hit Airship of Boston Aviator; Charles F. Willard of Hull Has Become Prominent in Aeronautics". Boston Journal. Boston, Mass. June 2, 1910. p. 3.
It was a Boston man who figured in the first case recorded of an aeroplane brought to earth by a bullet...Charles F. Willard, whose machine was wrecked in Joplin, Mo., during a cross-country flight
- ↑ AP News (February 2, 1977). "Charles F. Willard Is Dead". The New York Times. New York. p. 17.
- ↑ Willard, Charles F. (February 1956). Frank H. Ellis (ed.). Frail were my Wings. pp. 31, 70.
{{cite book}}:|magazine=ignored (help) - ↑ Norwich Bulletin, (Conn.) "Target Shooting from Aeroplane", September 13, 1910
- ↑ Aeronautics, The American Magazine of Aerial Locomotion, Vol. 5, No. 1, July 1909, p. 14-15
- ↑ American Magazine of Aeronautics, Volumes 5 à 7, p. 98
- ↑ "Harriet Quimby". National Air and Space Museum. June 28, 2026.
- ↑ "Harriet Quimby profile". centennialofflight.net. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
External links
Media related to Charles F. Willard at Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Forster Willard 1883-1977 [sic], EarlyAviators.com
- Charles Foster Willard flying a Curtiss aircraft at the Harvard-Boston Aero Meet, September, 1910, Wright State University
- Charles Foster Willard, Museum of Flight